Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: brendan shanahan

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment announced today that Toronto Maple Leafs President and Alternate Governor Brendan Shanahan has signed a six-year extension with the club through to the 2024-25 season.

"On behalf of the MLSE Board of Directors, and certainly our company and fans as well, we are very pleased to see Brendan continue in his role as President of the Toronto Maple Leafs," said Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman of the Board for MLSE. "Brendan's positive impact on this team has not only been felt on the ice, where the team is on an impressive path, but throughout the league, with the Leafs alumni, and in the community. We look forward to continued success for the Maple Leafs under Brendan's leadership over the next six years."

Brendan Shanahan hasn’t missed many high notes since assuming command of the moribund Maple Leafs in April 2014. He has been a progressive leader of the fabled franchise that hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, the last year of the Original Six, selling both ownership and a demanding fan base on a meticulous rebuild plan that would demand patience. In many ways, the Rangers are copying his blueprint.

But boy, did Shanahan blow some sour notes this week when he suggested the recalcitrant, unsigned restricted free agent William Nylander and pending 2019 Group II’s Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner should be willing to take hometown discounts in order to accommodate Toronto’s cap crunch and thus remain Maple Leafs through this era of revival.

The club president did what players who move into management always do, ignoring their own, often inconvenient, histories. Indeed, Shanahan applied selective memory in harkening back to his Stanley Cup-winning days in Detroit while implying that the marquee Red Wings took less money in order to remain together as the foundation of the unit that captured the chalice in 1997, 1998 and 2002....

Just wondering: Would Henrik Zetterberg’s back have forced him into the league’s twilight zone LTI retirement haven with three deeply discounted years remaining on his contract if the Red Wings weren’t a bottom-feeder? But no circumvention, nothing to see here, deputy Bill Daly says so.

The author of the Shan-a-plan won’t allow himself a moment to stop and smell the playoff roses.

There is still too much work to be done, Brendan Shanahan said, in a lengthy interview. In his third season on the job as Maple Leafs president — the first year to assess, the second to strip down the roster and essentially tank, the third to remarkably qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs — Shanahan calls this rather stunning season as “just another positive step in the process.

“In the moment, like on Saturday night, it feels fantastic,” he said. “And then everyone involved, including the players, immediately switches to: ‘What’s next?’

“We’re like everybody else. We enjoyed that game and the nature of it. But five minutes after it’s over, it has to be: ‘What’s next?’”

What’s next begins Thursday night in Washington and a Stanley Cup playoff series against the best regular-season team in hockey. What’s next will be the first exposure many of his young Leafs have had to this new game called NHL playoff hockey.

Shanahan hopes the post-season run, however long it lasts, will give some perspective. He doesn’t just want to build a playoff team, as he already has. He wants to build a team capable of competing for the Stanley Cup every year.

Two years after Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment made a controversial bet on Shanahan – who had never worked for an NHL team in any capacity – what he will say is that he feels the Leafs are ahead of where he expected them to be.

He has a top coach in Mike Babcock, with a Stanley Cup and Olympic-gold pedigree. He has an experienced general manager in his 73-year-old mentor Lou Lamoriello, working on transactions. He has an up-and-coming executive in Kyle Dubas, managing the minor leagues (where the Toronto Marlies finished at the top of the standings), a renowned bird dog in director of player personnel in Mark Hunter and a cap guru in Brandon Pridham.

After the weekend, Shanahan also has 18-year-old wunderkind Auston Matthews, the projected star centre the Leafs selected first overall at the entry draft in Buffalo.

It’s a start.

“I had an idea before I even accepted the job of what needed to happen in Toronto,” Shanahan said in a wide-ranging conversation with The Globe and Mail about the rebuild the Leaf organization is undergoing. “But because I’ve gotten support [from ownership], things have fallen into place a little bit quicker. Other people have bought into it and come aboard.

“In each of my [hiring] meetings – whether it’s been with Mike Babcock or Lou Lamoriello or Kyle Dubas, Mark Hunter, Brandon Pridham – my approach has been honesty. ‘This is who we are. We need your help. We have a long way to go.’ But I like some of the early signs. And we’ve had some luck, obviously, with the lottery draft. It was nice to have a little bit of luck on our side, as well.”

"The first 41 games, people were going to reveal themselves, and so far there's been a good response and I think we maybe have more here than we thought we did. But we need more to come, we really need more to come to really be what we want to be, which is a championship-caliber team.''

-Brendan Shanahan, president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Pierre LeBrun of ESPN has more from Shanahan.

The leather-bound appointment book lies in the centre of his desk, the edges perfectly aligned. There is a cell phone, parallel with two television remotes, not one a degree out of place.

Around Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan’s office there are some pictures you’d expect from a Hall-of-Fame player turned executive (lifting the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings) and some you might not (shaking hands with Bill Clinton and Stephen Harper).

There are books on business innovation: “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, and on sports innovation: “Big Data Baseball,” by Travis Sawchik.

But the 2015 edition of the brown, plush American Express appointment book takes pride of place. He fills it out himself, in ink, a habit he began when the high school graduate got his first real job, working alongside the league’s Ivy League trained lawyers at the head office in Manhattan. They go four years back now and the 2016 edition is already waiting at home.

He’s aware all this can be done digitally, but he likes the ritual and the permanence of the paper and pen.

“I’m more inclined to write stuff down, log things,” he says. “After you leave I’ll write down we spoke.”

Grange continues, and Shanahan also appeared on Prime Time Sports on Wednesday evening:

The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons questions whether the Blackhawks are a classic sports dynasty, he discusses the Leafs' desire to essentially salvage the players who haven't been completely poisoned by the concept of playing hockey in Toronto (Phil Kessel is not one of those players in Simmons' eyes), and he offers the following words of warning:

When Glen Sather was talking trade with Montreal in the deal that eventually sent Scott Gomez to the Canadiens, his assistant Jeff Gorton, was clear about New York’s needs: Make sure, he told Sather, that Ryan McDonagh is included in the transaction.

Sather had heard the name McDonagh, but had never seen him play. He listened to his assistant and moved accordingly.

When Brian Burke was talking trade with the Blue Jackets in a deal that sent Sergei Fedorov to Columbus, his assistant Bob Murray had a word of advice. “Don’t make the trade without Francois Beauchemin.”

Burke’s response: “Who the hell is Francois Beauchemin?”

He made the trade and Columbus included Beauchemin in the deal.

Why does this matter now? It matters as the Maple Leafs get ready to remake their roster. They don’t have a general manager. They don’t have a pro scout of any reputation. They may have capable junior hockey operators: But they don’t have people who know the NHL and the AHL and all levels of hockey inside and out.

When the time comes to make a deal next week and they need a [Jeff] Gorton or a [Tim] Murray whispering in a general manager’s ear, who will do the whispering? They don’t have a GM and they don’t have a Gorton or a Murray type. Of all that Brendan Shanahan has done, his lack of NHL experience and pro scouting acumen may come back to haunt him.

Sportsnet's Damien Cox suggests that the Toronto Maple Leafs must take an aggressive approach to pre-draft-day trades in order to move out bodies and bring in both younger prospects and picks, and while this entry fits under, "KK Hockey" more than my blog, I (George) read this as a Red Wings fan and thought, "How did two months suddenly turn Toronto's trash into another man's treasure?"

To be in position to get the best players over the next few years, more picks are needed and winning has to become a secondary goal, which means people have to go. Phaneuf almost went at the trade deadline to Detroit, and that’s a scenario that will be revisited, even though the Leafs have yet to hire a new general manager. Shanahan feels comfortable making major deals with Mark Hunter, Kyle Dubas and Mike Babcock at his side, and the Red Wings may be willing to give up the futures now that they weren’t willing to relinquish in March when a deal that featured Phaneuf going to Motown for the contract of Stephen Weiss and defenceman Brendan Smith wasn’t concluded because the Leafs also wanted futures the Wings weren’t willing to surrender at that point.

Kessel, meanwhile, has seven years to go at $8 million per, but even in an off, off season he potted 25 goals. There’s no obvious match here, but lots of teams failed in the playoffs or missed them because they struggled to score and could have interest in the winger.

And so they're supposed to surrender major compensation for someone described by the Toronto media as nothing more than a malcontent and a cancer?

Bozak and Lupul would be the next two on the list, and if Kessel can’t be moved, they are easier to deal. Lupul has three years left at $5.25 million, Bozak three more at $4.2 million.

The Leafs have demonstrated in the David Clarkson trade with Columbus and the Phaneuf talks with Detroit they’re willing to absorb salary if that’s what it takes to make a deal. Moreover, they’re keenly aware that once the free agent market opens July 1, and with the cap likely to increase only to about $71 million, their options to move these players are likely to be reduced significantly as budgets get spent.

That doesn't mean their prices have gone up since the trade deadline, when the Leafs weren't able to consummate deals for any of the above-listed players.

Cox continues, and I'm not trying to rip the guy, but let's just say I think his take on the value of the players the Maple Leafs' press corps bashed for the entire 2014-15 season aren't any higher because other teams are desperate to take the Leafs' problem children on this summer.

Word is that Mike Babcock is pushing for [Mark] Hunter to be named general manager of the Leafs. Brendan Shanahan would be wise to look elsewhere. Shanahan needs Hunter to find players. A general manager won’t be able to spend the kind of time scouting that the Leafs require to properly rebuild. Hunter may want the job but the practicality of it doesn’t make sense...

Those who say this is the last shot for the Chicago Blackhawks aren’t really paying attention. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith — the best 1-2-3 in hockey — are signed through 2023. Corey Crawford is signed until 2020. Marian Hossa is signed through 2021. Niklas Hjarmalsson is signed until 2019. So if you lose a Patrick Sharp here, a Brad Richards there and sign Johnny Oduya, Brandon Saad and Brent Seabrook to new deals, there’s no reason this kind of success can’t continue for several more years...

Two more things on Keith: 1) His cap hit is $5.5 million, making his contract one of the best in hockey. By comparison, the Dion Phaneuf contract looks ridiculous. 2) Should the Blackhawks win Saturday night, Keith may be the leading candidate to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, but he’s not a Norris Trophy finalist. For the record, he was on my ballot, ahead of both P.K. Subban and Erik Karlsson, who are up for the award.

...

If Steve Yzerman can juggle the salary cap prudently, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be Stanley Cup contenders for years. Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn are all 25 and under. And figuring they pick up some assets for the disappointing Jonathan Drouin, that should make them even stronger...

When Brian Lawton tried to acquire defenceman Tomas Kaberle when he was general manager in Tampa, the Leafs first asked for college kid Alex Killorn. That conversation didn’t last long.

Word around is that the eventual hiring of a Leafs GM may also come with some kind of compensation price. Possibly a second-round draft pick? Possibly a third-round draft pick?

The Red Wings already established the price on a Mike Babcock hiring as a third-round pick and now that it seems Babcock is likely to return as Detroit coach, what becomes the price to hire AHL coach Jeff Blashill, who is under contract to Detroit?

While once upon a time, the elevation from a senior position in one organization to a GM or coaching job elsewhere was considered part of the game and encouraged, that isn’t the case any longer and anyone under contract elsewhere cannot freely hired by the Leafs.

So [team president Brendan] Shanahan must balance the worth of a GM and coach against the value of a draft pick.

And at a time when picks are precious and about all the Leafs have, how much is too much in compensation?

Brendan Shanahan’s ultra-secretive search for a general manager meanders on with a large portion of the hockey world left wondering exactly where the wealthiest team in the National Hockey League is headed.

Whatever the Shanaplan involves — and that seems to include the hiring or wooing of a Maple Leafs coach before he hires the next Leafs general manager — it does not centre around anything resembling conventional hockey thinking or order.

Clearly, Shanahan has chosen to look the other way on well-regarded general managers with winning records and impressive resumes. He passed on Peter Chiarelli, hired quickly by Bob Nicholson in Edmonton after being fired in Boston. He passed on Ray Shero, hired quickly by the experienced Lou Lamoriello in New Jersey, when Lamoriello was pushed upstairs. He hasn’t spoken to George McPhee, architect of the Washington Capitals.

Shanahan is doing things his way. Whether that’s the right way will be determined in time.

You deliberately come before the media on the morning of a home game to castigate one of your players… and now you want everyone else to be quiet? To (in your words) “sweep it under the rug?”

I’m puzzled, Brendan.

For a guy that impressed so many people with thoughtful work during the lost season of 2004–05, and with innovative thinking while a National Hockey League executive in charge of discipline, today’s appearance before the cameras didn’t measure up.

Though he declines credit, he played a lead role in changing the course of the game. Now he faces a task that, by scale, seems reasonably within reach: reversing the direction of a franchise with hockey weather but not much else in its favour lately. He will forever talk about “team” and “staff,” but ultimately this will be a summit of one and lonelier than that moment on the ice in Nagano.

The self-education of Brendan Shanahan: to be continued.

-Gare Joyce of Sportsnet on Brendan Shanahan. Read much more from Joyce on Shanahan.

The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons discusses the fates of Eric Staal and Tyler Myers in his weekly notebook, but he also makes a point regarding the Slava Voynov case that...Let's say the New York Post's Larry Brooks examines in greater detail...

Will be an interesting conversation around Lou Marsh time ... If Slava Voynov remains suspended until his Dec. 1 court date, he will have sat out 18 games, making his one of the longest suspensions in NHL history. What makes this so complicated is that he has yet to be formally charged with anything, his salary is counting against the Los Angeles salary cap and in the backdrop of the Ray Rice situation, the NHL is caught in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t circumstance.

Amongst Simmons' notes:

Now that they’ve won three home games in a row, the heat is off Edmonton coach Dallas Eakins. For now. But had the wins not come in the homestand, the Oilers were preparing to make a coaching change. The man they were already sniffing around: Mark Messier

(have we ever heard that rumor before? Naaaaaaah)

This is why I remain skeptical of the Maple Leafs' ability to work as a functional sports team...

Brendan Shanahan is comfortable with words, but he can’t figure out how to describe how he feels, one day before the season begins. It’s not nervous, precisely. Interested? No, much stronger than that. He hits one. “Alive,” he says in his office at the MasterCard practice facility, which overlooks the ice. “I’m struggling to find it, but it’s like the feeling I used to have before a season. It’s a mixture of excitement, fear, adrenaline.” Alive.

It took a long time for Shanahan to circle back to the beginning, but here he is. When he was a boy in the Toronto suburb of Mimico, the youngest of four brothers, he would run with his older siblings through the same streets he drives now when he comes to practice. He left at 16 to play junior in London; he was, to his great surprise, in the NHL at age 18. He played his second ever NHL game here, a Leafs home opener. He returned to his high school’s dance the night before.

“It was completely natural to go,” Shanahan says. “My friends were still in high school. It wasn’t dumb to go. What was dumb was to tell one of my teammates where I was going.”

According to the Toronto Star's Mark Zwolinski, new Maple Leafs assistant GM Kyle Dubas is working very hard to learn the ropes in Toronto...

“It’s been a busy summer,” said the new assistant GM. “It’s been an interesting time to come in. In a way it worked out perfectly in that August is a quiet month in the NHL, and it let me get my feet under me. Get to know Brendan (Shanahan, the team president) and Dave (Nonis, the general manager).”

Dubas has spent the majority of his time this summer rounding out the Marlies staff, signing a few players, getting ready for training camp next month, finishing an ECHL agreement with Orlando as well as scouting Canada’s under-18 camp.

“It’s getting a sense of what everybody is doing,” said Dubas. “What each department is doing. Following the guidance of Dave and Brendan.”

And Dubas also has this to say about the "fancy stats" business:

“Hockey is behind other sports for a number of reasons, including the nature of the sport,” said Dubas. “There’s a lot of people that seem to me to be rushing the magic formula and how it all works. A lot of people are trying to sell that.

“The key for me is, if you rush, you’re going to be chasing down a rabbit hole, not really knowing what you’re looking for. We’ve got to determine how we’re going to go about that, how we’re going to develop it internally and not have to outsource that.”

To his credit, the Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons' weekly notebook includes exactly one mention of the "advanced stats" community, and it's one that voices a thought many of us have considered since Extraskater.com went "offline"...

When the analytics website @extraskater disappeared on Friday, my assumption was that creater Darryl Metcalf had been hired by an NHL team

(or the NHL itself, given that its new "terms of service" all but ban the kind of activity Extra Skater and Behind the Net engage in)

“I don’t like Brett turning 50. To me, that’s sort of like a realization that your kids are growing up. I always saw Brett as a big kid. But I guess the truth of the matter is that it probably doesn’t matter that he’s turning 50. He’s probably the same big kid.”

-Brendan Shanahan on Brett Hull turning 50 on August 9th. More on Hull from Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons spends a significant portion of his Sunday notebook fighting the anti-advanced stats fight (again). In doing so, however, he does make one astute point about new Maple Leafs assistant GM Kyle Dubas, and it's a point that the "Boy Genius, Master of Advanced Stats" narrative has ignored.

Dubas made some very "gusty" calls in terms of both coaching and player personnel while turning the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds from a bottom-feeder into a perennial contender, including making a very risky coaching pick:

Against almost everyone’s advice, Dubas hired Sheldon Keefe to coach in Sault Ste. Marie when Keefe was persona non grata in the OHL because of his personal behaviour and his longtime involvement with the pariah David Frost. People knew Keefe could coach. But no one would touch him. Dubas found a way to finesse that and now he’s on the rise and so is Keefe. And lingering there are many people in the OHL who have no use for either of them.

Simmons also believes that Leafs president Brendan Shanahan's decision to fire Dave Poulin and Claude Loiselle might have a positive effect upon the NHL's Department of Player Safety:

“I feel incredibly lucky. I mean, this when I say that I couldn’t be more excited to have this opportunity and privilege. I don’t ever want to play up the fact that I’m from here but I grew up a fan. In my 21-year career I had one eye on the Leafs, always had an interest in them, even when my interest was in beating them.

“This would mean so much to me, if we can put this together. It would certainly be something that I was most proud of.

“Going to the (league) and taking a step away from the game, not just going from playing for wins to coaching for wins, was a good lesson for me in the type of work that needs to be done in order to be successful, or to give yourself the best chance at being successful. I have a burning desire to make this work.”

-Brendan Shanahan, President of the Toronto Maple Leafs. More from Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star.

“I would do everything I could to encourage a young player, if it’s his dream to make the NHL, to work on his skills. There will always be intimidation in the game of hockey. There’s intimidation in baseball. But the answer is no, I would not want to give anyone advice on how to be a fighter. I don’t think it’s a life I’d hope for for my children. The idea of teaching a young person how to develop that skill as a tactic is not something I would ever do in good conscience.

“For me, that’s not a condemnation of these men who have the protective gene. It’s me displaying my protective gene for them, if I could go back and grab them when they were 14 or 15 years old. For the people who spent a career and a lifetime protecting us, this is the responsible thing to say as far as protecting them.”

-Brendan Shanahan, President of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Much more from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News on this topic.

“He fought as a player, he fought for the union, he fought for the game and he (fought) for the integrity of the league. Now he comes here to fight for the Leafs. The one thing I know about Shanny is he’s going to fight for us every day.

“He may be analytical, he may be patient, he may not knee-jerk, but in that heart beats a man who is extremely committed to winning and doing whatever is necessary.”

-Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of MLSE on Brendan Shanahan, the new President of the Toronto Maple Leafs. More on Shanahan from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.

In his 21 years as a power forward with a scoring touch that took him to The Hockey Hall of Fame, Shanahan spent a lot of time pounding bodies in those areas Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle said, in increasingly wistful terms as this lost season wound down, he would like his players to venture – along the boards and in front of the net. He really was a hard man to play against, something the current crop of Leafs like to talk about but rarely are.

The biggest problem with the Maple Leafs is they remind anyone of a certain age of the Maple Leafs from the Harold Ballard-Gerry McNamara era of the late 1980s. That team had some talented players such as Russ Courtnall, Gary Leeman and Wendel Clark. Gerry’s Kids, as they were called, since McNamara the general manager drafted most of them and insisted they were all terrific.

But Clark was one of the few with a competitive streak and that team was notorious for how quickly the players stopped working, much to the fury of head coach John Brophy.

"Whether it was behind the scenes or under the glare of hockey's harshest spotlight, Brendan was as much of an 'impact player' at the League as he was on the ice. Brendan brought commitment, clarity and impeccable credibility to his difficult and thankless duties here, and while we are sad to see him go, we knew his unique skill-set and body of work in the sport would make him a valued leader for any Club. Brendan has helped to change the culture of the game, has made it safer on a variety of levels, and his influence will be felt for years. We send him to his new role with our best wishes and our deep appreciation for his many contributions to the game."

If the reports are true, the Maple Leafs could be on the verge of hiring Brendan Shanahan to an unspecified high-ranking executive role. Is hiring the current director of NHL Player Safety a good idea?

Here are five reasons why it’s a good idea and five reasons why it’s a bad idea.

GOOD1. Shanahan is local (from Mimico), and he’s a Hall of Famer who won three Stanley Cups as a player with the Detroit Red Wings. His name screams “winner.” This city needs a hometown hero in their front office and a feel-good story. His link to a winning organization like the Red Wings, who have made the Stanley Cup playoffs for 23 straight seasons, makes MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke drool. He would also have cachet with the players because of his reputation as a character guy in the NHL.

BAD1. Brendan Shanahan has no hockey ties to the Maple Leafs. He was a member of the Red Wings, who are an arch-enemy of the Maple Leafs. This would be akin to the Red Wings hiring Wendel Clark as president. This would not go down well with many fans.

"... honestly, what has Shanahan done to be considered for such a pivotal role? He’s never scouted, never run a hockey team, never made a trade and never juggled a roster or a salary cap. He has worked on player safety for the NHL, issued suspensions and fines and he has initiated talks and ways to improve the game. Kudos to him for that, but converting that into a director of hockey ops gig is a major leap, one the Flames are in no position to make.

This is a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs in four years, an organization now in a rebuilding mode with three picks in the first round of this month’s NHL entry draft. This isn’t the time to hand the keys over to a novice and say, “Go take it for a test drive. See what you think.”

-Allan Maki of the Globe and Mail. More from Maki on this topic and other NHL notes...

What was outlined was as follows: Ken King would step in as team president and CEO to lead the Flames’ pursuit of a new arena; Shanahan would come aboard as director of hockey operations and would be allowed to hire his own people.

That, essentially, would position Shanahan as Jay Feaster’s boss. The Flames’ general manager is on the hot seat after failing to make the playoffs for four consecutive seasons. Feaster will also be overseeing arguably most important NHL entry draft in franchise history, what with Calgary having three first-round selections. How the team proceeds, through the draft, trades or free-agent signings, will ultimately determine Feaster’s fate.

John Shannon of Sportsnet with a list of hockey people he feels are candidates for either a coaching or GM position in the NHL.

Brendan Shanahan – I know, I know, he already has a big job. But I suspect Shanahan will be approached to run a hockey operations department at some point. The former star player is smooth and ambitious. He has created a very high profile, and has strong fan recognition. No one can argue about his hockey acumen and he will be given a chance to be a general manager, sooner than later.

Brendan Shanahan sits back in his office chair and takes very little time to answer the question. Nearly midway through his second season as NHL chief disciplinarian, what has he learned the most?
"I don't think this is a job that can be done perfectly. It's only a job that you can aspire to do well," the NHL's senior vice-president of player safety said Thursday in an interview with ESPN.com.

Indeed, this job will never earn perfect marks. Not when you're dealing in the gray. There's no black and white in this gig.

But there is, Shanahan hopes people will realize, an attempt at developing a methodology that explains where he's coming from when doling out justice, or when he's not.

The real lessons are not just learned in the actual suspensions, but rather the knowledge gained from the 800-plus incidents -- small or big -- his player safety group reviewed last season.

Brendan Shanahan, NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety, made an appearance Tuesday on Cisco NHL Live and provided analysis of a few plays from recent games that the League's Department of Player Safety determined did not warrant any supplemental discipline.

Three players have been suspended so far in the 2012-13 season -- Philadelphia's Brayden Schenn for a charging infraction on New Jersey's Anton Volchenkov, Colin McDonald of the New York Islanders for a boarding penalty on Pittsburgh's Ben Lovejoy and Washington's John Erskine for a hit to the head of Philadelphia's Wayne Simmonds.

The incidents Shanahan highlighted during his appearance on the show included hits by San Jose's Brad Stuart on Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog, Toronto's Mike Brown on Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta and Los Angeles' Jarrett Stoll on Anaheim's Cam Fowler.

Well, here is Shanahan a year later, saying the same thing he said when commissioner Gary Bettman tapped him to lead the league’s new department of player safety: For all the crap that comes with the job, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a difference.

And despite all the criticism Shanahan has received, his group is making one.

“All the things I heard about the challenges of the job were true,” he said. “But we knew that going in, and we don’t spend any hours of the day feeling sorry for ourselves. We feel that we’ve got a very important initiative, and we work really hard to sort of try and maintain that. And it’s early in the process still. But I see a lot more positive from players than maybe other people notice.”